Survivor: Redemption Island

[sahyder1]

The cast (most of it) was announced today.

The last 2 contestants will be announced later this week and in case you haven't heard already I'll put them in spoiler tags.

Boston Rob and Russel

I love the Redemption Island twist. It pretty much means that immunity/reward challenges will be combined now since they will have to show the Redemption Island challenge as well. If you missed the details people who can voted out won't be out of the game right away. They will go live in a separate camp by themselves. When the next person is voted off they will come to this camp and the two will go H2H in a challenge. Winner stays on this camp by themselves while the loser is out of the game. Once it gets down to Final 5 I beleive the person still standing will be brought into the game.

Edited February 16, 2011 by sahyder1

[The Quasi Juice]

Cast looks decent. A lot of bimbo's again, trying to recreate Natalie but whatever. One of them is exactly like Fabio previous season, from the way he looks to his strategy. I'm rooting for Mr Smarty Pants.

Pretty funny most of them said they hated Russell and didn't get why he wasn't voted out straight away, so this should be good. Redemption Island might just be a ploy to get Boston Rob or Russell back into the game in the end, because people will obviously be hunting for them. I can see Rob doing well in Redemption Island but honestly, I don't get the concept. If they are brought back at 5, they will just be voted out again you'd think, unless there's a 2v2 situation in camp, and both sides will scramble to get the new guys' vote.

[Katsuya]

HA! YOU GOT BOSTON ROB SO TAR WAS FREE FOR ANOTHER SEASON

Or, yeah. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he does *this* time .

[sahyder1]

I am not sure if they come back at 4, 5 or 6 people left but them coming back will change the dynamic of the game. You're dealing with someone you voted out earlier. Now you need to face him/her. Him/her could come help someone who was at the bottom of the food chain. Him/Her could come back and go on an immunity run to win.

As for the returning cast members

Boston Rob will dominate Redemption Island. He is my favorite Survivor of all time and I'm looking forward to seeing him back.

[Douglasonfire]

Sweet, I only watched two episodes of last season and than watched the Finale (it was the only thing on.) I like the new concept and would like to see it in action.

I like Boston Rob, but I've liked Russell since that first one he was on. Is the season already taped?

[sahyder1]

Season 22 was taped right after Season 21 was.

[apsham]

Oh man - I can't believe this series is still going strong. The last time I remember watching, someone had to leave the island because they fell asleep and fell into a campfire or something insane like that.

[sahyder1]

Oh man - I can't believe this series is still going strong. The last time I remember watching, someone had to leave the island because they fell asleep and fell into a campfire or something insane like that.

That was Season 2 back in 2000. A great season.....aside from the fact that it introduced Elizabeth Hasselback to the world.

Edited January 11, 2011 by sahyder1

[The Quasi Juice]

It's my favorite reality show of all time, nothing is better. I'd go mental if I were allowed to play. They seem to cast mostly friends of old contestants though, which is kinda lame.

I hope there will be another former players season soon. I know it would be quickly after HvV but they are just the best seasons. I'd love to see the likes of Kenny, Natalie and Ozzy play again. Yes, Ozzy for the third time, who cares? They used Amanda for the third time and she isn't even good TV, except when she acted like she was going in Micronesia and then provided an idol

Edited January 11, 2011 by The Quasi Juice

[RPS]

Why bring back Russell? The guy can't win this show if his life depended on it. The guy has no concept of reality or how to play a game like this. Will be interesting to see how he is edited, because by the end of HvsV, they pretty much portrayed him as one of the worst players to ever play the game. He made so many fatal errors it was laughable.

Edited January 11, 2011 by RockPaperScissors

[The Quasi Juice]

The hilarious part is that he thought he had a chance of winning, AGAIN, just like in Samoa. He probably had a better chance of winning Samoa than HvV, at least he got a vote. But Russell is just back by popular demand, he's good TV, that's it. Boston Rob got screwed by Tyson flipping his vote for no GOOD reason, otherwise he would have outplayed Russell easily. There's no win Russell will win this, unless he somehow gets voted out first, survives Redemption Island until the end and then gets to the final 3, because then they might feel tempted to reward him for being such a fighter. He's not awesome at challenges though.

I wonder if they'll bring them back the first day, like Stephanie in Guatemala. If they do Russell is going to scramble like a bitch and it should be interesting how he manages to survive the first vote. Rob on the other hand will probably be greeted by everyone etc, he'll make the jury for sure.

[RPS]

Something about bringing Boston Rob and Russell seems like a "jumping the shark" moment for Survivor. Bringing back past contestants always had an interesting twist - the original All-Stars, Bobby John and Stephanie in Guatemala because of them being the last standing, Fans vs. Favorites, Heroes vs. Villian's. This is taking two hugely overrated Survivor's, one of which has played 3 times and didn't make the jury TWICE and the other who played twice, made the jury twice and got a grand total of ONE vote. They aren't anywhere close to the best players AT ALL, they just have stand out personalities and talk a lot about how good they are. I mean, if you really wanted to bring back two male players who played strong and deserve to lead tribes, how about Earl, Aras, Yul or Todd. Four winners who absolutely did a great job controlling their season and won. Or even non-finalists like Terry, Rafe or Kenny. Those three, had they made it to the finals, probably would have won their respected seasons. And those are just male players. There are lots of players who should come back before Russell and Rob.

Edited January 11, 2011 by RockPaperScissors

[The Quasi Juice]

Oh I agree. I think they did ask Yul to come back for HvV but he said no. Todd would have loved to but they never asked him, which is weird because he was surely not "boring". You could just tell the moment Boston Rob said he would 'gladly' kick Russell's ass all over the island at the reunion show it would happen because of the reaction it got. Also, I heard they will have immunity until the merge. I wonder how they will justify THAT.

[RPS]

If that is the case, I'll keep watching, but it seriously undermines the credibility of the show and significantly alters what Survivor is about. I'm down with Redemption Island, it's an interesting twist that will alter how people play the game and vote people out. But giving immunity to two returning players so you prevent keep them around for half of the season? That's not Survivor.

[sahyder1]

I don't think they're getting the immunity until merge. I believe that was the original idea that was tossed around. The two of them were basically supposed to recruit their own tribes and serve as "leaders". We'll know more when they officially announce these two later in the week but I'm pretty sure they dropped the immunity idea.

I would think the Redemption Island Twist works better better for Boston Rob then it does Russel. Boston Rob has definitely been the better player in challenges over the years. I can see him go on a run if he gets voted out. I don't see Russel going on that kind of run.

I have no problem with them bringing these 2 back. There is a big demand for it in the Survivor fan base.

What's with the Boston Rob hate? I thought he was good in Marquesas. He was flat out brilliant in All-Stars. Heroes vs Villains would have been his season too. He laid out the best strategy. Tyson screwed it up for him. It was beyond his control. Russel to me got too much credit. His strategic play has been flat out stupid. Parvati dragged him along to the end because she knew he had no shot to win. Parvati played him the entire season. Even in Samoa, it was Natalie who orchestrated the Erik vote that changed the game. Russel actually used his idol that week! Lets not forget that Boston Rob dominated the game without the idol too.

[sahyder1]

It's official. Survivor officially announced Boston Rob and Russel as the final 2 entries into this season.

Edit: They will not have immunity.

Edited January 13, 2011 by sahyder1

[The Quasi Juice]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPWC2ldUh-k

For the people the CBS link doesn't work.

Probst says in the article that Russell will never win, Rob might. Well fuck, why is he being called up again then if he can't win? He says people won't have Russell fatigue, but I wonder because he constantly talks about how awesome he is, he hogs the camera. He's one of the best ever in getting to the final, but the way he plays will never give him the victory, which is retarded. In the video Russell says he'll be the villain again 'cause that's how he plays, and he doesn't care if he doesn't win, he only cares about America's vote. I don't like this at all, does he deserve another shot with a mentality like that? I predict, if they don't get protection somehow, that Russell goes out before the merge (he'll probably get the best team to counter Rob's awesomeness in challenges), Rob makes it to the final 6 or so. I'd be HIGHLY surprised if one of them makes it to the end.

The Redemption twist was clearly designed to keep them in the game longer.

Also, it's going to be a bitch avoiding spoilers. Before HvV there were SO many spoilers floating around on the internet that I knew Sandra was going to win already which sucked. Luckily I didn't know the boot order and stuff, because that would have ruined the season for me while it was the best ever.

Edited January 13, 2011 by The Quasi Juice

[sahyder1]

Yeah, it is a pain trying to avoid spoilers. I like to go watch the full tribal council videos, clips from Ponderosa, etc. but there is always an idiot who posts spoilers in the comments. I've learned to just not scroll down that far.

I agree with Probst that Rob will be targeted because he actually can win. It is amazing how he's gone from one of the most hated players to one of the most beloved. But then again there can be someone just in awe of being there with Boston Rob and siding with him. Am I the only one who thinks that Russel would have no shot in the Redemption Island challenges? I've never looked at him as a force in challenges.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

I hope they get to choose their tribes. Maybe have an hour of interaction between all the Survivors and let them mingle. Then, let Rob and Russel pick 'em school yard style.

The thing is that Russel really needs players he can manipulate whereas Rob can pretty much manipulate anybody. It would be interesting to see who they would pick based on first impressions, because I think Russel would select a lot of girls thinking he could carry them to the end. Rob would probably take a mixture of both athletic people and people he feels will play well.

[The Quasi Juice]

I wonder if they will be able to pick their own guys, it would be fair. However, they might just make teams beforehand, just so Russell has even a chance of beating Rob's team because he has more athletic players.

I will watch as always but it all seems a bit fishy so far. There's too much riding on Rob and Russell to stay in the game for long and that does not suit me well.